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The owner of a Youngstown company that injects “fracking” wastes into disposal wells pleaded not
guilty yesterday to deliberately dumping thousands of gallons of the toxic mixture into the
Mahoning River.

Ben Lupo, 62, owner of Hardrock Excavating and D&L Energy Group, entered the plea shortly
after he appeared in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio. He is charged with
violating the Clean Water Act.

The charge stems from a Jan. 31 incident in which state officials witnessed workers dumping
fracking wastes, called brine, and drilling mud into a storm drain at Lupo’s business. The drain
leads to an unnamed stream and the Mahoning River.

Officials with the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency said Lupo acknowledged that evening that
he told employees to drain the storage tanks into the storm sewer six times over the previous six
months.

The Ohio attorney general’s office reported yesterday that a Hardrock employee told
investigators on Tuesday that wastes were dumped down the storm drain at least 20 times since Nov.
12.

Oil and gas drillers rely on fracking, a process in which millions of gallons of water, sand and
chemicals are pumped underground to shatter shale and free trapped gas.

Some of the fracking fluid bubbles back up, along with saltwater trapped underground for
millions of years. The brine contains spent fracking chemicals, high concentrations of salt and
naturally occurring metals and radium.

Radioactivity can build up in “muds” — lubricants used to help in the drilling process.

According to state records, D&L Energy owns at least six disposal wells used to pump and
store brine underground.

Officials said they don’t have an estimate for how much waste was dumped, though the tank has a
maximum capacity of 20,000 gallons.

Dan Tierney, spokesman for the attorney general, said the case is in a U.S. district court
because the federal charge carries more-severe penalties.

The maximum penalty for a Clean Water Act violation includes three years in prison and a
$250,000 fine. Tierney said the same violation is a misdemeanor under Ohio law with maximum
penalties of one year in prison and daily fines of $25,000.